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Verizon

Directors

Lydia Polgreen

Editor-in-Chief, HuffPost (Verizon Media)

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Bio

Lydia Polgreen is Editor-in-Chief of HuffPost. She was named to that post in December 2016 after spending nearly 15 years at the New York Times, where she led an initiative to expand its audience outside the United States, with an initial focus on Latin America. Previously, Lydia was Deputy International Editor, the South Africa bureau chief, a correspondent for the New Delhi bureau and chief of the West Africa bureau.
Before joining The Times, Lydia was a reporter in Florida and New York state. She began her career as assistant editor and business manager for The Washington (D.C.) Monthly. Lydia was a 2006 recipient of the George Polk Award for foreign reporting, in recognition of her travels deep into the war-torn western regions of Sudan to report on the carnage in Darfur. She received the 2008 Livingston Award for international reporting, for her series, "The Spoils" an account of how mineral wealth has brought misery and exploitation to much of Africa. In 2007, she was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum.

Magda Yrizarry

SVP, Chief Talent & Diversity Officer

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Magda Yrizarry is Verizon's senior vice president and chief talent and diversity officer for Verizon Communications, a leading provider of wireless, fiber-optic and global Internet networks and services.

Ms. Yrizarry is responsible for the development and implementation of Verizon's global diversity and inclusion, strategic talent acquisition, development and succession planning strategies. In addition, she leads all corporate Human Resources Business Partner and change management initiatives.

Prior to her current duties in Human Resources, she led communications and compliance teams, including those responsible for Ethics, EEO and Environmental, Health and Safety.

Ms. Yrizarry has held numerous positions of increasing responsibility in External Affairs, including executive director for public policy and strategic alliances, responsible for Verizon's key national stakeholder relationships and outreach efforts with multicultural communities, senior citizen and disabled constituencies. Prior to that, she served as director of operations and national workforce development programs for the Verizon Foundation where she was responsible for the organization's $75 million budget and overseeing a workforce development portfolio that included scholarships, diversity initiatives and economic development projects.

Ms. Yrizarry is an Executive Board member of ASPIRA Association and a vice chairperson of ASPIRA of New York. She is also a founding member of 100 Hispanic Women, an alumnus of the National Hispana Leadership Institute, and a member of The Catalyst Research Center for Corporate Practice’s Expert Community.

Ms. Yrizarry is committed to developing talent, supporting inclusion and building community. She was recently inducted into the 2018 Hispanic Scholarship Fund (HSF) Hall of Fame. She also was named to Fortune’s 50 Most Powerful Latina women in corporate America and as a Top Executive in Corporate Diversity by Black Enterprise Magazine.

Ms. Yrizarry earned a Bachelor of Science and Master’s Degree from Cornell University and has completed an executive training program at Harvard University.

Awardees

Cindy Joung

Senior Product Manager (Verizon Media)

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Cindy is a Senior Product Manager at Verizon Media. Since 2015, she has worked on several brands within the company including Aol.com, Yahoo Play and currently Yahoo Entertainment and Lifestyle. After graduating Northwestern University, she began her career in the entertainment industry, weaving from film publicity to entertainment law before joining Whalerock Industries (f/k/a BermanBraun), where she transitioned to digital media in 2008 to launch MSN's Wonderwall.com. Cindy is passionate about building communities and championing diversity and inclusion. She is the founder and global chair of Verizon Media's Asian employee resource group and actively participates in several women-focused professional organizations.

Genia Wilbourn

SVP, Operations

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Genia is Senior Vice President of Verizon’s Global Network Operations & Assurance, leading network field operations for the nation’s largest and most reliable 5G and 4G LTE wireless network. This network, along with the state-of-the-art wireline OneFiber and Intelligent Edge Networks deliver the broadband connectivity that consumer and business customers rely on domestically and globally. Additionally, she leads business service delivery and assurance across more than 2,600 cities in 145 countries. Most recently, Ms. Wilbourn led Verizon Partner Solutions Operations, responsible for Verizon’s global wireline wholesale operations including access service ordering for core, Fiber-to-the-Cell (FTTC) and Ethernet services, competitive local exchange carrier (CLEC) ordering, installation and maintenance, voice product marketing and operations, core services regulatory support, wholesale systems transformation and wholesale business process management. She previously led Global Engineering Design & Transport where she was responsible for engineering design, network provisioning and capacity management across Verizon’s wireline footprint. Genia began her Verizon career in 1998 as a wholesale operations team leader and has since held a variety of staff and line positions of increasing responsibility in center and field operations, service delivery & assurance and customer care. Genia holds a Bachelors of Science degree in Civil Engineering from Morgan State University. She is a graduate of the Master Series of Distinguished Leaders and was named one of OSP Magazine’s Game Changers in 2015. She is currently executive sponsor of the Black Resource Association of Verizon Employees (BRAVE) and actively supports Verizon Foundation’s Innovative Learning mentoring programs such as Black Girls Code and #weneedmore which seek to foster and inspire youth towards STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Math) careers.

Kelly Hirano

VP of Media Engineering (Verizon Media)

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Kelly is the Vice President of Media Engineering for Verizon Media. He is a 20-year veteran of Yahoo and is responsible for leading global engineering teams for some of Verizon Media's most well-known brands, including Aol, HuffPost, Tumblr and Yahoo. Kelly began his career as the second engineer at Yahoo Sports, where he played a pivotal role in rapidly growing the size of that development team to where it is today. As his role expanded into engineering management, Kelly helped Yahoo Sports acquire Rivals and Sportasy, the basis of the successful Yahoo Fantasy Sports franchise. Other engineering management responsibilities included: Yahoo News, Games, Entertainment, Finance and Autos. Kelly lives by his oath "together we win," and always seeks mutually-beneficial solutions in both technology and people. Outside of his day job, Kelly has been selected as the Chairperson of the Engineering Associates Steering Committee, which guides programs focused on Verizon Media's most promising young engineering talent. He has also served on the Hiring Committee for Engineering, the Patent Priority Committee, co-designed Yahoo's last iteration of the corporate quarterly performance review program, and is a current member of Verizon Media's Executive Technical Council. Kelly holds a BS in Computer Science from Stanford University and is a graduate of UC Berkeley’s Engineering Leadership Program. When he's not working, Kelly enjoys spending time with his wife and two children, photography, cheering for the San Jose Sharks and Stanford football, wishing he was biking more, futzing with home automation and IoT devices or playing some Blizzard video game.

Miguel Quiroga

SVP, Strategic Initiatives (Visible)

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Miguel is Senior Vice President, Strategic Initiatives and the leader of Visible. As a leader, he is passionate about building teams and partnerships that bring the best of product, engineering and marketing to design and deliver great customer experiences. Previously, Miguel was Vice President of Digital at Verizon Fios. In this role, he is responsible for customer experience, sales, P&L management, and the digital transformation practice for the business. His primary focus was driving growth and revenue through the customer centric strategy and execution of digital products, operations, and partnerships. He also led the sales distribution strategy and indirect channels across the ecosystem of partners and resellers for the Fios consumer business. In prior roles, Miguel built the practices for digital and customer experience for Verizon Fios where he led the business integration strategy and execution of cross-channel experience using design and product delivery methods to drive user experience and insights. Earlier, he served in various Director roles building technology platforms and running operations for Employee Experience, CRM and Sales operations, capital planning and program management functions.

Shelly Ashwill

VP, Client Services

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Shelly is Vice President Client Services leading Service Management, Client Operations for the Americas within Verizon Enterprise Solutions. Shelly brings a strong foundation of telecommunications, technology, channel marketing and large enterprise sales and service experience to this role. She has responsibility for providing global service and operational support for Large Enterprise clients. She and her team are the single point of accountability for the customer lifecycle including service delivery, solution management and account governance. Her team provides service to approximately 7500 clients across 120 countries. Prior to this role, Shelly served as the Group Vice President for Global Client Services providing global support to the Fortune 50 Enterprise and GovEd clients. In addition, Shelly has previously worked as Vice President of mid-market sales where she was responsible for the end-to-end client management, VARs, and customer satisfaction. Shelly started her career at MCI in National Accounts & has held a number of roles within consumer, small business, enterprise and state/local government. Shelly was among the very first Credo Award winners within Verizon when the initial recognition was launched by Lowell McAdam. She prides herself on being focused on client satisfaction and delivering exceptional results for Verizon. Shelly is ITIL v3 certified. Shelly continues to be an advocate for community service and professional development of women. She currently serves as Global co-President for Verizon’s WAVE Employee Resource Group. Shelly holds a bachelor's degree in English from the University of Utah.

Vandana Venkatesh

SVP & Deputy General Counsel

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Vandana is Senior Vice President and Deputy General Counsel for Verizon. In this role, Vandana is responsible for supporting all aspects of Verizon Wireless and Wireline products, marketing, sales, service and compliance. She leads an awesome team of attorneys and legal staff who work on supporting and outstanding customer experience for Verizon’s 145M+ customers. At Verizon, Vandana has held a number of positions supporting all aspects of the business, including global enterprise, federal procurement, IT and sourcing organizations. Before she joined Verizon, Vandana was an Associate at the law firms of Morse, Barnes-Browne, & Pendleton and Bingham Dana where she was counsel to internet, high tech and bio-tech startup ventures. Prior to her career in the law, Vandana was a Congressional Aide to Congressman Henry Waxman (D-CA). Ms. Venkatesh holds a JD from Georgetown University Law School and a MA and BA in History from the University of California, Los Angeles.